Here are the most important business and financial news from the previous week

See below main business and financial news from the previous week:

Hungary – Critical labour shortage in the construction industry

Prices are skyrocketing in the construction industry, while the starting date of renovation projects can be delayed by years due to the extreme labour shortage, read more HERE.

RECORD EUR 1.6BN OF MAP PLUSZ BONDS SUBSCRIBED IN FIRST WEEK

Retail investors subscribed 529 billion forints (EUR 1.6bn) of Hungarian Government Security Plus (MAP Plusz) bonds in the first week since their launch, a new record. The MAP Plusz bonds pay an annual yield that gradually rises from 3.5 percent to 6.0 percent over five years.

OPUS UNIT LANDS RAILWAY UPGRADE CONTRACT

Listed holding company Opus Global said one of its indirectly owned units, in consortium with a Chinese partner, won a 2.078 billion US dollars contract to upgrade a stretch of railway between Budapest and the border with Serbia. Opus expects the contract to boost its revenue by 295 billion forints over five years. Read more HERE.

CJEU ADVOCATE GENERAL SAYS HUNGARY TELCO TAX COMPATIBLE WITH EU RULES

An advocate general of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) said in an opinion that Hungary’s telecommunications sector tax does not violate European Union rules. The opinion, issued in a case involving Vodafone Magyarország, is not legally binding.

LAWMAKERS VOTE TO CUT PAYROLL TAX

Parliament approved a two percentage point reduction in the payroll tax to 17.5 percent, effective July 1, 2019. The reduction is one of several the government has initiated in recent years, as outlined in an agreement reached with employers and unions late in 2016 linking the cuts to wage rises.

GROSS HOUSEHOLD ASSETS RISE OVER 7 PC TO HUF 85,000 BN IN 2018

Gross assets of Hungarian households rose by 7.4 percent to more than 85,000 billion forints last year, the NBH said in an annual report. Households’ homes, loans and stakes in companies accounted for 64 percent of their gross assets.

AUTHORITIES SUSPEND OPERATION OF HUNGARY’S ONLY ARTIFICIAL FERTILISER PLANT

Local authorities suspended the operating licence of Hungary’s only artificial fertiliser plant because of repeated compliance failure, a spokesman for the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County Disaster Management Directorate told MTI. The plant, in the central Hungarian city of Szolnok, owned by Bige Holding, has failed to meet the conditions for safe operation, Ádám Németh told MTI.

WINGHOLDING PLANS EUR 100 M BOND PROGRAMME FOR 2019-2020

Hungarian property developer WINGHOLDING announced plans to launch a 100 million euros corporate bond programme. WINGHOLDING plans to issue fixed- or floating-rate bonds with maturities of three to ten years in the framework of the programme for 2019-2020. It will use the proceeds from the programme to complement bank financing for its investment and development projects as well as to optimise its capital structure.

Source: MTI